A Series of Unfortunate Events...

March 26th-29th - Surfers Paradise and Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

From Byron Bay we continued north for a couple of hours to Surfer's Paradise. We hadn't booked anywhere to stay and so went for a cheap campsite a little way out from the main strip. BIG MISTAKE. After we had paid we drove in to find our space and got a feeling that the campsite was in a state of neglect. It had tree branches hanging down and everything just generally looked a bit grotty. There were ants all over our space that coated the van once parked. Additionally, we discovered a number of long-term residents on the campsite, if you know what I mean... However, seeing how we had already paid and were on a budget we decided to stick it out.
That afternoon we went into Surfer's Paradise. We then discovered that we were actually quite far from it and that it was a pain to get to. When we got there though it was a bit of a let down. It looked like a beach strip in Spain, with blocks of flats and apartments built in the '60s, and a street with normal high-street shops and clubs on. It was packed with young people who were there to party and the whole place was generally a bit soul-less and disappointing.
We booked a surfing lesson for the next day - seeing as we were there we thought we should! To make the day even worse (and sadly there is yet even more to come) we decided to try Australian fast-food. They had MacDonalds and Burger King and all the rest of it, but the chain Hungry Jacks seemed to be unique to Australia. It was the most disgusting burger and fries I have ever had in my life, I couldn't even finish it. It made MacDonalds look/taste like fine dining. Never again.
We went back to our lovely campsite and decided to get an early shower and night - we had changed time zone again and it got dark at about 5pm which was quite strange. The shower blocks were grotty and as I was part-way through my shower I saw that I was sharing the cubicle with an ants nest. When Mike returned from his shower though, he confidently said he could beat me in having had the worst experience. He said that as he went in he was greeted with a stark-naked man (who he recognised as one of the long-term residents) who looked like he was on drugs. Mike proceeded into a shower cubicle whereby he trod on something warm and squishy (in flip-flops) that turned out to be human faeces. On hearing this story, we jointly decided we shouldn't stay there anymore and the next morning we left immediately and headed for another campsite which was more expensive but we were only too happy to pay!! We also had to go looking for new flip-flops...
Once we had settled into our new campsite, we headed for the beach for our surfing lesson. The sea was quite rough but we both managed to stand up on our boards and it was good fun. We spent the afternoon by the pool at the campsite. Because Surfer's Paradise was such a let down, we never took any photos and there wasn't even much to take photos of!!

The next day we put the pedal to the floor and quickly headed for Brisbane. Mike had been to Brisbane before many years ago so knew a bit about it. The climate continued to change and it was becoming more hot and more humid still. As we were coming into Brisbane, we turned off the motorway onto a slip road that was 3 lanes wide. Between the 1st and 2nd lane there was an enormous snake, which must have been a couple of meters long, trying to get across the road!! We had to swerve a little to avoid him. He was the size of the ones you only ever see in the zoo. We have no idea where he came from but  hope he made it across the road...

Brisbane is really hilly, which made it a little tricky to maneouvre the campervan. We had a lovely argument as we were trying to park it as Mike attempted a daring 3 point turn on a hill which resulted in us nearly tipping the campervan!! We were relieved that we had paid for the insurance to cover  us if we tipped the van!

We stayed with a young couple via AirBnB and it was a lovely airy, wooden house on stilts. The first afternoon we walked into the city and grabbed some food. It is a small city, more like a large town, and it is quite quiet, with not much of an atmosphere. This feeling is maybe exacerbated by the fact that it is all pretty modern so lacks some character.

Our first full day in Brisbane we explored the city. We walked sooo far I thought my legs were going to drop off. It was a really beautiful Sunday and we walked into town and along the river. There was a market and lots of nice things to eat and drink. They also have a lagoon/pool built into the sidewalk next to the river which was busy with families. We then went up and along the cliff edge that gave great views of the city.

The lagoon next to the river

The lagoon

Brisbane harbour - the trees on the left are the botanic gardens

We walked across the bridge and sat by the river having a drink - it was proper hot. Later we met up with our friends again (Rachael and Liam) and watched some of the cricket world cup final. I was very excited about the next day because that's when we got to see the koalas and kangaroos...

Brisbane